bren5279

iTrader: (15)

Anyone out there done a folding rear seat mod yet? I was thinking of doing one if If not if I can get some time

BlackRX82006

iTrader: (1)

Folding rear seat mod? Damn I'm a newb. I have no idea what you are talking about

expo1

The photo below shows what it looks like behind one of the backs of a rear seat. You would need to remove that structural item to have true fold down seats.

Winning 8

and that piece of metal act as a strut tower brace.

ZumnRx8

why the hell would you wanna do that...........

bren5279

iTrader: (15)

Dam, so on a 1-10 scale how bad would that be?

More trunk space... duhhh

expo1

treyoh5

11

expo1

Renesis07

iTrader: (1)

pointless mod that's not worth the headache. There'll be all sorts of bars and whatnot in the way. Is there anything in particular you need to transport that would benefit from this mod or were you just mulling over the idea?

fyrstormer

Get a roof rack if you need more space. Or better, get an old POS Honda to haul **** in, and keep your 8 clean.

fuztupnz

iTrader: (4)

You'll have to pull out structural items as mentioned above which is a bad idea. Also, you'll have to fab up some way to hinge the rear seat(s). This will not be an easy task either. After that, you'll have to support the seat backs since they rely on the bracing to keep them from falling through. If you manage to do that, you still have the center console in your way.

If you really want to do it, i would recommend a rear strut brace the runs along the floor of the trunk to help support the car with the bracing behind the seats torn out.

It's not worth the effort or risk to the structure of the car IMO.

bren5279

iTrader: (15)

Yeah sounds like itl be more work than its worth. Guess roof rack it is.

expo1

Depending on the item you could remove the storage cubby that is in-between the two rear seats. That does allow the pass thru of long items.

Willits8

If someone does this Id love to see it, Ive ran into a few things that would have easily fit if i could jsut fold my seats down

terch1

iTrader: (2)

As already mentioned you would have to eliminate the structural members located behind the seat. This would obviously affect the structural integrity of the car itself and would almost definately affect the drivability of the car. I say almost definately because I do not know of anyone who was stupid enough to attempt this.

bren5279

iTrader: (15)

If I could find some way of replacing the X cross members with a structural support in the shape of a box shape it might be possible to maintain the structural support while making it possible to have an opening. I think it would be worth it to just get the passenger side to fold so that you would at least have one long side. So a sort of shortened x with a box support on the passenger side.

Kind of unlikely but I might see what I can do in january

Jim Sanderbeck

Dont do it!Its a big can of worms.

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

Hey man, all props to you if you can pull this off without degrading the structural integrity! This could be interesting....

PS or, borrow a friends truck to haul stuff

bren5279

iTrader: (15)

Im not. I just stripped an rx8 to the bone so I know all the structural supports. The only way to do it would be to create some kind of box structure support to put in place of the 2 diagonal supports.
In addition to that, the way the rear seats mount, there is no good way of mounting hinges on them.

You might be able to make them fold down and leave the supports there, but It would be somewhat ugly.

I think a roof rack or even a folding trailer with trailer hitch would be more efficient.

tjbourgoyne

If you can imagineer it you can engineer it but you would need a good knowlege on the structure of the car otherwise your in for a big mess. I wish they would have made those seats fold down because the center back console, although functional, could be put to better use with folding seats.

You can sometimes get around it though by laying the front seat flat and opening both the front and back door. I've transported large tuff boxes for military deployments easily with that method.